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The U.S. market bought the most household products in 2002 with sales of $14 billion, according to the “Surfactants for consumer products-North America forecast to 2010” by Colin A. Houston & Associates (CAHA), Inc., Brewster, NY. This equated to approximately 16 billion pounds of household products sold in 2002 and will increase to 19 billion pounds in 2010, with an annual growth rate of 2.4%. Eighty-four percent of the volume consisted of heavy duty liquid and heavy duty powder detergents, light duty liquids, bleaches and hard surface cleaners. Surfactants are also expected to increase 2.8% annually.

The lion’s share, heavy duty laundry detergents, are expected to grow annually 3.3% to 2010. In 2002, 6.1 billion pounds of heavy duty liquid and 2.4 billion pounds of heavy duty powder detergents were consumed in the U.S. Executives said the shift away from powder to liquid will continue. Experts said the main selling point for household products is consumer convenience, which leads to less time spent cleaning, effective and multi-functional products and reasonable prices. Advancements will be made in technology for stain-removal in laundry products, enzymes and oxygen bleaches in automatic dishwashing detergents and hand care and aromatherapy in hand dishwashing detergents, according to the CAHA report.